WARD GRUMBLES AT OUR INACTION. 199 



"this awful stillness seems to depress your spirits, 

 good people." 



" Bepress, not depress," said Hope; " I am under 

 that sort of dreamy ecstasy that opium eaters are 

 said to seek, when mere thinking is a bore, let 

 alone speaking ; it may be Abbott's Eoman punch 

 and my second pipe, eh, Miss Clive ? surely not 

 silence alone." 



" I hope only the last i Usci la notte e sotlo V all 

 meno il silentioj says Tasso ; suppose you take a 

 nap and dream out the poem." 



"Why, I seem to dream now," he said; "and 

 how is it that times in our lives leave the odd 

 impression of being shadows, while others, not of 

 a bit greater moment, are so emphatically real ? " 



" Ha, Mr. Philosopher," said the Major, " you 

 are not going to give the ladies a dose of meta- 

 physics, are you ? But you are right enough ; and, 

 more curious still, there are individuals now and 

 then seen, whose whole lives seem not to belong 

 to this stern world, but who come and go like 

 spirits. I was just now thinking of two such 

 visionary beings." 



" Oh, do tell us about them, " said Mrs. Peyton. 



" I was only thinking of my brother's wife and 



